


Shaved Americano, with Cinnamon

by YeolMonster



Category: Infinite (Band)
Genre: 2016 au?, Alternate Universe - Canon, And the other members of infinite, Idol-Verse, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-29
Updated: 2017-01-29
Packaged: 2018-09-20 13:38:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9493874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/YeolMonster/pseuds/YeolMonster
Summary: Myungsoo has territory problems.





	

**Author's Note:**

> OKAY SO. There was a prompt in my drabble prompt list that went like this: "[Early 2016 era] Infinite are discussing about moving out of dorm and living alone after their rent ends and Myungsoo convinced Sungyeol to live together with lots of dirty sweet promises." and I was like "I could totally nail this in 1-dot-5-thousand words, gimme 2 hours tops" but then I started thinking about it and I was like lying on my bed talking to Annie and I got this weird ass idea. So this is me basically not-filling-in-the-prompt BUT it is on the subject of moving-out-of-the-dorm, and it is canon.  
> Also, I'm a senile old woman, and 2016 sort of flew above my head for all sorts of reasons, so this is not exactly accurate to the true events what happened in 2016, but it's trying to be?  
> OH MY GOD IT IS SO HARD TO EXPLAIN THIS FIC I'M GETTING A HEADACHE.  
>  **TL;DR** : it's a canon2016!au and Sungyeol is all over Myungsoo's apartment, and Myungsoo lowkey likes it, but highkey doesn't know what to do with it, while the rest of infinite sorta frolic around. 
> 
> THANK YOU ANNIE, MY YEOLKITTEN, WHO BETA'ED, SUPPORTED, AND MADE A CONTRACT WHICH I TOTALLY DIDN'T BREACH!!! ! 1!!!1 Special thank you to the anon who donated the prompt, and I apologize if the fanfic isn't exactly a fill!!!

Myungsoo’s first actual  _ owned  _ apartment is a penthouse on the last floor of an 8-storey building.

It’s located in a good neighborhood, has a guard in front to make sure pesky sasaeng fans don’t bother him, and also a private drive-in parking lot in the basement, which only opens the door to certain cars that are registered in the system. 

Which is why Myungsoo makes a face when Sungyeol’s black sedan is parked at the designated spot for his apartment in the parking lot. Myungsoo has to park his chevrolet at the guest parking, while muttering something under his breath, and accidently activating the voice option of the smart system in the car, which gets his windshield cleaned. 

Sungyeol’s legs are dangling over the back of couch, long and pale and smooth. The apartment’s warm. It smells like coffee.  

“Appa’s home,” he announces, though his voice doesn’t sound so enthusiastic about it. Myungsoo puts his car keys on the stand and glances at the living room. Sungyeol’s lying upside down on the couch, a cat toy in one hand and his phone in another. Byeol leaps to greet him, now that Sungyeol’s stopped waving feathers in his face, and rubs himself at Myungsoo’s pants.

Myungsoo pets his head. 

“Why aren’t you wearing pants?” is the first thing he asks. Sungyeol in boxers was bad enough in the dorms - Sungyeol in boxers in his apartment is even worse for his mental state.

“It’s hot.” Sungyeol complains, throwing his legs off the headboard of the couch and sitting down upright. 

His hair is somewhere between lilac and gray - the hair specialist at the saloon didn’t really know what she was doing, but Sungyeol says it will take a few sessions to fully discolor it from red with black roots and Myungsoo stopped arguing. 

“Then adjust the heating.” 

“Yeah - about that. I tried to find the ultimate temperature for me, and it broke.”

Myungsoo starts taking off his dress shirt on the way to the bedroom; “It didn’t break, Sungyeol.”

“It wouldn’t let me readjust it. Anyway, the manager said he’ll come tomorrow to check it out.” 

“You probably adjusted the temperature 9 times and it has a lock function or something— wait, how do you know the manager?”

“If you press 0 on the smartboard it calls the manager - if you press 08 it calls the guard downstairs. He’s really underpaid, by the way. His name’s Junsu and his wife just gave birth to this beautiful baby girl.”

Myungsoo stops in the middle of the hallway, and squints back at Sungyeol. He’s following him closely, arms crossed on his chest. “You’re still not wearing any pants.” 

“It’s still hot.” Sungyeol looks at him like this goes without saying, and that Myungsoo is the one who is being weird, then enters his bedroom and plops down the bed. 

Clearly he’s been here too, since the bed is ruffled, there’s celebrity magazines on it, and Sungyeol’s laptop is on the floor, charging.

Myungsoo sighs, and takes out his wallet and phone and puts them on the drawer case. 

“How was the shooting?” He says, flipping through one of the magazines. 

“Okay, I guess? They didn’t want to do my scene today, because the main actor came half drunk and started demanding shit. It was a mess. The production seemed uneasy that I came for nothing too.”

“Should’ve hired you as lead.” Sungyeol singsongs, flipping through the pages absent-mindedly. Myungsoo has no idea what he finds in those, reading gossips about other celebrities, and being particularly amused where it’s something about them or their agency. These tabloids always assume the silliest things. Myungsoo even remembers a particular one that connected Sungjong to extra terrestrial beings. He and Sungyeol laughed about it for well over a year (they still do, when they get drunk enough).

“I’m too young for the role…” Myungsoo takes off his shirt, and drops it on top of the laundry pile in the walk-in closet. He takes off his belt and puts it in his belt drawer - so far it contains two belts, since he’s not much a belt-person, but he had all this extra space he didn’t need, so he might as well have a belt drawer now. 

Only when he already unzips his pants, he raises his gaze slowly at Sungyeol. Sungyeol’s lying on his belly on the bed, legs dangling above him again playfully as he reads something, head propped in his hand. 

Sungyeol looks up to him and says; “What?” 

Myungsoo doesn’t answer, but goes back to the closet begrudgingly. 

“You know what? After 6 years of being inside each other’s butt, that’s really insulting.” Sungyeol sounds annoyed.

“Well, maybe that’s why I moved out.” 

“You never had a problem with it before.”

Myungsoo doesn’t answer.

When he comes out, he asks him “Chinese or Pizza?” still in the midst of a tabloid article because he knows when it's best to leave the conversation.

 

.

 

By the time his phone’s alarm rings for the third (and last) time, Sungyeol is already out of bed. 

He’s always up after the first alarm because he’s Mr. Sunshine, and he has to draw the curtains to let the sun in, and open the coffee machine (which he bought. For himself. So he could have coffee in Myungsoo’s luxurious kitchen whenever he spends the night) and just generally be too cheerful and noisy than what is socially acceptable at 8am.

At least, socially acceptable in Myungsoo’s opinion. Maybe he should have rules. It’s his apartment, after all. He should definitely have rules.

He sits up and looks at the messy other side of his bed. 

Yesterday, Sungyeol came over to watch Deadpool and they ordered sushi. They also talked about his bad audition and then fell asleep between murmurs. At least, Myungsoo did.  

Myungsoo commented about the guestroom at least twice, at first, but it’s been months, and at 2am, he already agrees with anything that has to do with Sungyeol, even if he knows it’s bad for him. He does remind him of the dorm life, and it feels more natural than falling asleep alone and waking up with Byeol dragging his nails across his back. So it’s fine.

It’s fine that Sungyeol sometimes sleeps with him in the bed. 

It’s nothing they didn’t do before either. 

One time they even had to share a single futon, until their new bunk-beds arrived.

What is not fine is that his belt-drawer is occupied by a variety of neatly arranged sweaters.

These are not even his sweaters. 

The housekeeper did the laundry yesterday. 

He’ll have to explain to her to put Sungyeol’s clothes in the guest room or something. 

Even though how will she ever be able to tell what belongs to who? She can barely speak korean. 

Myungsoo tried to explain multiple things to her already and she just stares at him with wide eyes and says something in her own language, which sounds vaguely like an insult. 

He even tried speaking in English. He made the google-translate function even read it out to him, so he was sure he pronounced it well. 

He grunts when he fishes out the belt that’s sitting right at the bottom.

“Hurry up, sleepy head, the manager said he’s waiting downstairs.”

Myungsoo throws his belt on the bed, and decides he’s not a belt person anymore. Sungyeol shoves a cup of coffee into his chest and puts Byeol down onto the counter. 

“Ready?” 

“I can’t find my scarf.” He says grumpily, “I can’t leave without my scarf.” 

Sungyeol sighs and disappears into the hallway. 

Byeol is sitting on the counter, and he looks like he’s passing judgment on Myungsoo. “What?” He asks him. 

The cat blinks slowly at him. Myungsoo pets his head.

Sungyeol embarks from his bedroom and throws the scarf at him before wearing his shoes. 

A bit of Myungsoo’s scarf gets into Myungsoo’s coffee cup.

Now he has a scarf flavoured coffee, and also a coffee stained scarf. Sungyeol clearly doesn’t understand his distress in the elevator. 

“Hey, maybe we should introduce Aga and Byeol. Aga’s lonely at home.” 

“Your parents’ dog is there, though.” 

“She’s friendly, she’ll get along with Byeol.” 

“Byeol isn’t friendly. He’s a cat. It’ll be a territory invasion.” 

“Oh, come on. I think they’ll be friends. Besides, Byeol is stuck at home alone all day long. He’s probably bored. I read that most cats need company too.” 

“He has a room full of toys.” Myungsoo says as the elevator rings, and the door opens. 

“Yeah, but he almost never plays with them. He’s always alone. He’s not even used to long playing sessions..” 

Myungsoo clicks his tongue; “If I wanted a dog in the house, I’d just get one.”

“Pfft, Myungsoo, you don’t know the first thing about caring after a dog - especially a puppy. They’re not like cats, they need attention and— Good morning, Hyung!” Sungyeol waves to the guard at the reception, who smiles and waves back at him.

Myungsoo frowns so deeply he’s sure he gets a wrinkle on his forehead. Good thing he’s scheduled for facial treatment tomorrow.

.

 

When he comes back from the treatment, face red and stripped out of the upper layer of his skin, Sungyeol’s car is parking at his spot. Again. 

He should've known that Sungyeol thinks his opinion has _ zero _ importance, because there’s shrill barkings from inside, and he punches the code to his door almost aggressively. 

Byeol is under the coffee table, and the only indication of him is his tail and a single paw, swatting at Aga. Aga jumps around Byeol’s location, too big to crawl under the coffee table. 

She probably thinks it’s a fun game. 

He picks Aga up almost immediately and glares at Sungyeol who is playing candy crush on Myungsoo’s IPad. 

“I said  _ No _ , didn’t I?! Now my cat is hiding under the coffee table in his own house!” 

“You didn’t say no.” Sungyeol answers. 

“Yes I did. Yesterday in the elevator! Can’t you see how scared Byeol is…?!” Although he says that, Byeol is out of his hiding place, already rubbing himself on Myungsoo’s pants.

Sungyeol pointedly looks at Byeol then back at Myungsoo. 

Aga is a restless, hyperactive little thing so it’s hard to hold her down when she’s in playful mood. She licks his face all over, as a greeting, happy to see him, once he stops talking.

“They’re fine, Myungsoo. They just started playing together, let her down.” 

It makes him even more angry that Sungyeol treats his outburst like he’s used to it.

Well - he is used to it. He spent more time living with Sungyeol than Myungsoo did with his own brother - his brother would probably take this this sort of scolding much more seriously than Sungyeol ever will. 

“They’re not fine, Sungyeol— You can’t just put an adult cat and an adult dog together, and expect them to get along.” 

“I know that. I read online and asked the guy at the pet store—”

“Because the guy selling food would know—”

“—Of course he would, he owns the clinic at the back. Now. I introduced them to each other for few minutes, then let Byeol smell Aga on me - I did everything by the instructions and stuff. Byeol ignored her for the first three hours, by the way. Then also attacked her when she got hyperactive and she started whining. It was ugly - I had to break them apart. And put Aga in another room. But I guess they’re establishing who's the alpha or something?” 

Aga jumps down, and starts yipping again, running after Byeol. 

Byeol pretends it’s not a big deal, even though his tail is swishing left and right. 

“I gave them both snacks, one to Aga and one to Byeol - and then they started getting more friendly. So don’t worry.” 

“Who died and made you the god damn animal whisperer?!” 

“Dude, it’s my secret superpower. You have beauty, acting skills, charisma and all that - the least I get to have is be tall and talk to animals.”

Myungsoo sits down on the sofa, now he’s upset that he got upset, because he knows Sungyeol wouldn’t charge his dog to shred his cat and do something that might hurt either of them - but he’s still upset that this was done without his supervision, in his home, with his cat, while he was away.

“You got beauty, acting skills, and charisma, too. Even if other people don’t see it, I do.” 

Byeol is swatting at Aga again, while she jumps around him as if she’s on springs. He’s not used to this kind of hyperactivity. 

Sungyeol’s shoulder brushes his own. 

He was always bad at taking compliments, so he just taps softly on the screen and matches his candies.

 

.

 

Wednesday comes along with rain and clouds, and Myungsoo’s shooting gets canceled only after he’d already arrived at the location. Manager-hyung is angry at this point, and barks at the production team using the word “mess” way too many times, as if they themselves don’t know it.

Sungyeol is standing in the living room wearing his shirt and a towel on his head and says that his house had no hot water, and his t-shirts are all smelly. 

“When is Mary coming over?” He takes a beer out of the refrigerator.

“Who?” He’s distracted with Aga and Byeol greeting him enthusiastically and not letting him take off his shoes properly. 

“Mary? The maid?”

“Oh. On Thursdays.” Myungsoo tries really hard not to look at Sungyeol’s boxers peeking out of the oversized shirt he bought in Bangkok during their last world tour. He  _ tries _ . 

“Great. I’ll bring over some stuff. My mom has dark-laundry days and white-laundry days and it’s annoying. But she has like 4 people’s laundry to do - Daeyeol refuses to clean his own laundry at the dorms because he says they’re always messing it up.” Sungyeol plops down the couch and the shirt rides up.

Myungsoo makes a barely audible grunt and disappears in his room and rubs his hair and tries to calm down. 

Then takes a cold shower. 

This doesn’t mean anything. It never does. But it messes with his head. 

 

.

 

When he finally does shoot a scene, he comes home in a good mood, only to find Nam Woohyun on the carpet, playing with Aga and Byeol. 

Woohyun stares at him and his eyes are red and he looks upset. 

Myungsoo looks back at Sungyeol who's in the kitchen, by the oven that Myungsoo didn’t even manage to use once since he moved in.

“I’m making lasagna.” He exclaims cheerfully, as if he didn’t notice the scattered tissues with snot and tears around Woohyun.

“What’s this mess on my carpet?” 

“I know it’s hard to tell, but it’s actually Woohyun. He suffering through a bad-choice-of-a-haircut syndrome. It’s pretty severe.” 

“I meant the tissues.”

“Fuck you guys.” Woohyun grumbles, then wipes his nose with the back of his hand. 

“What happened?” Myungsoo sighs as he puts his car keys and wallet on the coffee table, before putting his legs on it too, and cracks his head left and right. 

“I am having an emotional breakdown.”

“He had a fight with Sunggyu.” Sungyeol translates.

“I did not, we just disagreed — this has nothing to do with anything, okay? God.” 

Great. It’s like he never moved out of the dorms in first place. This place just needs more Dongwoo, and Sungjong leaving his stuff everywhere, and it’d be perfect.

Woohyun sniffs, looking over at him from above the coffee table; “Standing on stage alone is overwhelming.” He says, and sniffs again.

Sungyeol and Myungsoo watched him perform yesterday on M Countdown. Sungyeol was singing along and cheering, then by the rest of the broadcast they got drunk and played cards, then pranked called somebody - Myungsoo isn’t even sure who. Adulting at its finest.

Sungyeol opens himself a beer and takes a sip, before taking another beer and heading towards the living room area. 

Myungsoo’s sure it’s for Woohyun, because he needs one, but Sungyeol stops right next to the sofa, opens it and offers it him. 

Woohyun frowns; “What the hell, Sungyeol, I’ve been sitting here for an hour, weeping, where’s my beer?” 

“Ask yourself if you deserve one.” 

“I just remembered why I don’t like you two.” Woohyun squints at him, and Sungyeol sniggers, clearly delighted with the accusation, but brings him beer. 

Woohyun drinks half of it in one go, then proceeds to tell them with hand gestures and complete over-dramatization about his stage appearances and how some mean girl bullied him or today he arrived late from another show and they didn’t get to powder his nose so he looked greasy. 

To Myungsoo it sounds like the same issues they would always have during promotions - it’s probably just that he had to go through them on his own that got to him. 

By the time he’s finished listing everything that had caused his mental breakdown, Byeol’s already settled in Sungyeol’s lap, stretching his gray body along as far as he can for maximum comfort. 

The half-eaten lasagna is already cold on the coffee table, 3 forks stuck in it, since they ate it right out of the oven and without any plates. Myungsoo doesn’t have plates yet, even though it’s been half a year since he moved in.

It feels strange, almost like they’ve leveled up since the dorms - like now they don’t  _ have  _ to, they  _ want  _ to. And that’s a weird feeling to feel, because there used to be a time where they were literally running to get away from each other, even for a few hours. Myungsoo was an overall patient person, but even he had a limit to how much he could tolerate the same seven people. Sungyeol moves Byeol to his lap, who curls in opposition, and gets up to go to the bathroom, overstepping Myungsoo’s legs. 

Woohyun looks after him, mid-sentence, and waits until the bathroom door is closed, then turns back to Myungsoo and squints at him; “What’s this, Myungsoo?” 

“What’s what?”

“This, Myungsoo, this.” He mentions all around himself; “He’s making you a lasagna? And opening your beer can?” He whispers furiously above the coffee table, then glances down the hallway before climbing up; “My wedding invitation must have gotten lost in the mail.” 

“Shut up. He’s not taking the whole ‘moving-away’ thing that well.” 

“Oh my god, you’re as thick as a brick.”

“It doesn’t mean anything.” Myungsoo sips from his third beer and Woohyun gives him that ‘you’re not fooling anybody’ look. “It doesn’t.” He insists; “He already rejected me once, okay? Nothing is happening.”

Woohyun opens his mouth to say something, but the bathroom door is opened and Sungyeol embarks, scratching his belly. “I’d have another beer, but you guys need a responsible adult.” 

“Pfft, coming from you, it’s almost an insult.” Woohyun croaks, and Myungsoo pretends they didn’t have any conversation at all. 

 

.

 

Sungyeol still has physiotherapy sessions for his back, and today’s session must have been particularly painful, because he’s napping on bed, and doesn’t wake up when Myungsoo comes into the room. 

He’s probably doped up on painkillers. 

Myungsoo sits on the loveseat and picks up the sweats he discarded on the floor and folds them, and tries to tell himself that he’s right and Woohyun’s wrong.

He’s more here, than he is elsewhere. He’s all over Myungsoo’s things, in his business, wearing his shirts and sleeping in his bed.

But it doesn’t mean anything. Sungyeol probably doesn’t think it’s that different from the dorms. He probably hates going back to live with his parents or feels uncomfortable imposing on them. 

Myungsoo told him once - about his feelings, long time ago, back when everything felt like fleeting hot mess and nothing made sense, especially their new wealth and popularity. 

Back then he still was a teen with an immature worldview that everybody had something against his personal happiness beside Sungyeol, and it’s now-or-never. Sungyeol had this pity on his face, like Myungsoo was another stray animal he couldn’t take in. Myungsoo still remember the pang in his throat when Sungyeol said; “ _ Sorry, but I don’t feel the same _ ”. He remembers how he avoided him, almost scared when they got left alone afterwards too. Myungsoo ruined their friendship and worked hard to turn back the wheel and pretend it was all a drunken mistake.

And that’s okay. He is totally okay with just being friends. Myungsoo is okay with less, as long as there’s Sungyeol, because it feels right. He isn’t pining or anything - well, maybe he was pining _ just a little bit _ . You know. Hope dies last.

Sungyeol shifts on the bed for a moment, then finally mutters a soft sleepy “Hey…” 

“Hey.” He returns. 

Sungyeol sits up and scoots closer, dragging the sheet with him; “Bad day today?”

“Not really.” Myungsoo looks away from him, and puts the folded clothing article in his lap on the loveseat next to him. “I thought you were getting better. With your back.” 

“That asshole doctor—I was feeling great and had a great session, and then because he saw I was too perky, he decided to ‘take it up a notch’. Sadist.” 

“It’s probably for your own good, though.” Myungsoo refuses to look at him, choosing to look right at the window at the last lights of the retreating sun. 

When Sungyeol touches his back, he tries not to cringe or stiffen up - but he can’t help to tense up a little. 

Sungyeol’s touch feels soft and warm through his shirt. He traces his hand up to his shoulder, then leans against him, placing the side of his hand against his shoulder, and links his hands together. 

“Everything okay?” He asks softly, as if he can tell immediately that there’s something wrong, without even having to see Myungsoo’s face. 

Maybe he can.

It feels like they know each other longer than 8 years, longer than 10, longer than decades, inside out. 

“Yeah,” He breathes out, as if he was holding it in.

Sungyeol doesn’t say anything, but Myungsoo can feel him inhaling softly through the fabric of his shirt. 

It’s quiet for a long minute. Myungsoo can feel his heart hammering in his throat.

“Dongwoo’s coming over today, so we should probably make some food or something. I bought celery. We should do something with celery.” He speaks against his shoulder, then takes a long inhale, and slowly draws back, to the edge of the bed. 

“Why celery?”

“Because Dongwoo is carnivorous, and it’s going to be like watching the betrayed look of a cat that has been fed a leaf unknowingly.”

“That’s evil.” Myungsoo stands up, but smiles, because he likes the mischievous glint in Sungyeol’s eye; “I’m in.”

 

.

  
  


Sungyeol didn’t just buy celery. 

He bought plates. A set of six white plates, with a small black streak on the edges. 

He also bought bowls of a matching set - black ceramic bowls with a small white streak on them. 

Myungsoo realizes they suit with the black-and-white minimalistic theme of the house. He told the designer lady to ‘surprise him’ since he was busy with his tour when he bought the place, and didn’t have time to look at her sketches and discuss ideas. She didn’t really surprise him all that much, but it did suit him; clean, efficient and not too bright - like standard catalog design page. She also told him to call him if he needs anything at all, and added “Not only for design questions” with a wink. Not that he ever did.

That’s just beyond the point - the point is that Sungyeol matched the plates he baught to the interior design. That’s the point. Myungsoo isn’t sure why that’s the point, but he likes it being the point. 

Dongwoo comes with a pot that has a ribbon tied on it, and in the pot is a plant. 

Myungsoo isn’t sure how such a tiny person can carry such a heavy thing, because Sungyeol tries to lift it off the kitchen isle (where Dongwoo left it after exclaiming; “There! A proper housewarming gift!”) a few times, huffing at it’s weight, then gives up and pretends he wasn’t doing anything, when he catches Myungsoo’s gaze. 

“Oh, Hoya’s coming over too.” He says after he finishes his 7th celery sandwich; “He said he hasn’t been here yet, and he was curious what your place looks like.” 

“That’s so weird,” Sungyeol says; “I feel like we lived together for so long, that it just telepathically imprints on us how everybody’s apartments look like.”

“How much wine did you have…?” Myungsoo slides the glass away from Sungyeol and he hits him and slides his glass back. 

“I think like that, too!” Dongwoo agrees. “When I came over to Sunggyu’s I knew exactly where the bathroom is without asking.” 

“Oh my god, me too!” Sungyeol exclaims. 

“Did you ever think that’s because there’s a door with a picture of a dude peeing into a bowl - where else could that door lead?” 

“Shut up, Myungsoo, nobody likes you anyway.” Sungyeol shoves him.

The doorbell rings, and Hoya comes in, carrying rice wine and towing Sungjong after himself, as if this is an actual house-warming party half a year after he moved in. 

Sungjong and Hoya (and Dongwoo) immediately go to explore, Sungjong already carrying a handful of Aga and rubbing himself all over her and cooing around her. It was smart of Byeol to hide. 

“Should we order a pizza or something? Dongwoo double-crossed us and turned into an omnivore.” 

“When he’s hungry, he just vacuums everything off the table.” 

“You should talk.” Sungyeol opens the refrigerator. “Would it be weird if I make rice and eggs or something? Or just Pizza?” 

Myungsoo feigns a gasp; “We’ll be the ridicule of the village if they find out you’re a bad host, Sungyeol. I mean, pizza? How will we ever live down the shame. Who will employ me now?”  

Sungyeol glares at him and then hits him on the chest, Myungsoo pushes him back and sniggers, when Sungyeol clicks his tongue and catches two of his fingers and curls them back, until it’s painful. He only stops when Dongwoo comes back to take another sandwich. 

“Don’t give him anything to drink.” He instructs and picks up the phone to call the pizza place.  Myungsoo snorts and sits back down.

Dongwoo smiles and says; “I’m glad you guys figured it out in the end.”   

He’s not sure what exactly that meant - but they both sort of freeze and stare at him, and his smile falters as if he accidentally said something wrong. 

It’s so quiet and tense that Myungsoo can hear the pizza guy yelling; “hello?” on the line. 

Then Sungjong shrieks about something and Hoya embarks out of the hallway saying; “Why is there no sign on the door that marks the toilet? This is why Sunggyu’s apartment gets 5 stars, and yours 2 and a half.”

Sungyeol is the first one to recover; “You deducted so many points just because of that?”

He drops the phone from his ear, and walks back to the refrigerator to call some other place. 

“Of course not. It was also the banal minimalistic design.”

“Right, because suddenly you’re a design expert, hyung” Sungjong is now holding Byeol, who seems mostly frightened. He didn’t hide well enough, apparently. 

 

.

 

Myungsoo doesn’t want to bring it up at 4am when Sungyeol’s putting the plates in the sink, but the moment the door closes after Sungjong, it’s almost sitting there like a pink elephant in the room.

He’s not saying anything. And he’s also not going home, otherwise he would’ve already started packing Aga’s stuff up and putting her in her doggie-bag. She gets whiny whenever he leaves her here without him for the night. 

So he’s staying over. 

Which is pretty rare for Sungyeol - because whenever something like that happened - something weird - Sungyeol was itching all over to disappear into thin air and avoid him for month or so.

Not that it happened a lot. 

Twice. 

Longer when Myungsoo confessed. 

He’s not sure where should he start, but Sungyeol turns abruptly, having finished, and then jumps back. “Dude, seriously. I thought you went to sleep.”

“Can we talk for a sec?” 

He seems to hesitate for a moment, then he says “Okay.” And leans at the counter.

Myungsoo also leans at the counter. 

Then he pushes himself off it. 

Then realizes he probably should’ve practiced next to the mirror a few times. 

Sungyeol crosses his hands on his chest, at some point, and Myungsoo blurts out; “You’re all over my stuff.” 

Sungyeol’s eyes widen at the accusation, and he’s about to deny or say something back but Myungsoo cuts him off; “And also - you practically live here now? And this is my apartment, right? We all moved out, right? We’re living the good life, right? No cramped dorms anymore. And you’re sleeping in my bed and your dog probably thinks this is her new home, and you called Byeol ‘my son’ yesterday and I pretended not to hear it, but I did - and this is a clear territory breach.” 

“Are you still drunk?” His face looks sort of blank and Myungsoo can say ‘probably’ and move on with his life, but he chooses not to. 

“No, I’m being serious.” 

“Your territory, Myungsoo? What are you, a wolf? If you’re uncomfortable with me being here, you could’ve just said so.”

“I’m not uncomfortable - aren’t  _ you  _ uncomfortable?”

“Why would I be uncomfortable?” He lets his hands drop to the sides. 

“Because— come on, Sungyeol. Throw me a bone here. I can’t be the only one who… feels… weird. About this. I mean - there was a reason why after the— you stopped rooming with me. And we had rules. Not that we talked about the rules, but… you must know - you  _ must  _ know this is messing with me and that I still…” 

When he finally looks up to him, he expects that same pitying look, but Sungyeol looks expectant to hear the rest of the sentence, and when Myungsoo stops talking, he just stares at him openly, waiting. And when he understands Myungsoo is completely paralyzed in his spot he says; “I know.”

Myungsoo’s brain is sending ‘please standby while your computer restarts’ signals to the rest of his body, so he answers with “Okay”. 

“I’m not—I wasn’t exactly doing it knowingly, I was just…” He looks apologetic, like it’s not a big deal, takes a step closer and kisses him.

It’s a soft, chaste kiss. He keeps the tips of his fingers loosely on Myungsoo’s jaw, almost as if just to make sure he’s not going to draw back. 

Myungsoo doesn’t - even though it feels like one of his elaborate day-dreams. It’s exactly how he imagined Sungyeol’s kiss would be. 

When he finally draws back, Myungsoo feels delirious, like it happened and didn’t happen at the same time, and Sungyeol is going to flutter his eyes and they’ll never talk about this again. 

Sungyeol isn’t moving too far away though, and just says; “I’m still figuring this out myself— And I’ve never- not that I’ve never been with a man, you know that, but I’ve never actually wanted a healthy relationship before with anybody,” And Myungsoo knows what he means, the disarray of random models he was on-and-offing and making faces about when somebody asked; “—like I want it with you. So… I want to take it as slow as possible.”

Myungsoo swallows and nods. 

Sungyeol also nods, then sighs, content. “Let’s go to sleep…?” 

Myungsoo nods again and allows himself to get tugged to the bedroom by the shirt. 

He feels like he’s walking on thin ice as it is, but he has to blurt something like; “Why… now? I mean…” he trails off, and immediately regrets it. 

Sungyeol stops walking, and they’re in hallway, and it’s dark so he can barely make out his face. 

“You always do that, you know? Question it when something good happens. When we won first place with ‘Be Mine’ you just stood there, waiting for them to say there was some sort of mistake.” Sungyeol’s hand falls down to Myungsoo’s from his sleeve. He holds it gently between his hands. “I don’t know why now, Myungsoo - Well, it’s not even now. It’s from before. Maybe a year ago? I figured; I don’t even really like other people all that much, I mean people are great, but there really isn’t somebody who's my cup of tea - and I’m not blaming you for all my relationships not working, or anything, I know that’s on me - but you’re my cup of tea. You’re not even tea, you’re like my shaved Americano - the good kind, with cinnamon. And I want to spend all my time with you and do everything together.”

“I want to spend all my time with you, too.” Myungsoo answers - even though Sungyeol didn’t ask anything. 

Sungyeol continues to tug him to the bedroom. “I know.” He says.

Aga looks up from her purple bed on the floor when they come in, but doesn’t get up even after Sungyeol lands heavily on the bed. 

Myungsoo settles on his side, the one that’s closer to the window. “Can I have a second try on the kiss? I feel like I didn’t do my best since I was overwhelmed.”

Sungyeol snorts. 

“I don’t want to leave a bad impression.”

He scoots over and gives him a small peck, while smiling. “Better?” 

“That’s not fair.”

“Now you’re just getting greedy.” Although he says that, he doesn’t scoot back, and his knees are touching Myungsoo’s. Myungsoo likes that. 

 

.

  
  


Sunggyu makes a face when he trudges inside. 

“I’ll be right back.” Myungsoo says, then pauses.

Sungyeol fell asleep on the couch again, with Byeol napping on his chest. He smiles and gives Sungyeol’s foot a little squeeze, before going to the back of the apartment to the storage room. 

Sunggyu lost his cellphone in Japan, and Myungsoo promised to bring him one from his extensive fangift collection, but the box turned out to be lacking the charger, probably because he already gave it to somebody. So Sunggyu drove him to the apartment before vocal training, because he had 3 more, somewhere. 

By the time he comes back with another iphone box, Sungyeol and Sunggyu are already having an argument about something - they’re still mad because yesterday at practice, Sunggyu said that foxes are from the feline family, and Sungyeol claimed they’re from the canine, like dogs, and Sunggyu hated being wrong. Overall, it’s one of the stupidest arguments ever - but Myungsoo was there when Hoya and Woohyun fought about whether the color of the wall is purple or pink, which definitely took the cake when it came to stupid arguments. But tensions are high now, the pressure of the concert finally started to sink in, so there’s bound to be some scuffles here and there. 

He hands the box to Sunggyu, who's looking around the kitchen. “Does this one have an actual charger in it?” He asks, still looking like the place smells foul. 

“How about you actually thank him for giving you a free iphone, for starters. Could’ve bought a god damn charger, yourself. Could’ve bought a whole new phone, while you’re at it.” Sungyeol grumbles, standing up sluggishly from the couch.

“Yeah, it’s there, I checked.” Myungsoo answers, slightly amused. 

“Well, thanks.” Sunggyu says, despite himself, glaring at Sungyeol. “What’s  _ that  _ doing here, anyway?” He points the box to the general direction of Sungyeol. 

Sungyeol glares at him, and flips him off on the way to the bathroom.

“ _ That _ ,” Myungsoo smiles; “comes with the territory.” 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! :>


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